President Cyril Ramaphosa says the inefficient and non-integrated local government delivery mechanisms that enable service delivery to take place, are one of the major causes for the lack of service delivery and a breeding ground for capture.
Ramaphosa says he’s been informed how this manifests through everything in municipalities being outsourced to certain interest groups. He added that while the focus is on state capture, real capture is happening at local government.
President Ramaphosa has warned mayors that poor political leadership in the local government sphere will increase the loss of confidence from the public. He has called on municipalities to advance the interests of the public instead of being self-serving.
“I was told there is one such municipality that is rumoured top 6, that is paid tens of millions every month and they then manage the sub-contractors, who they pay or not pay for the various functions. That leads to the municipality overpaying, continuing paying for employees not doing the work, but overpaying for services that for the most part are either poorly delivered and not delivered at all while just a few continue to be enriched,” says Ramaphosa.
The mayors who were in attendance believe these gatherings will assist in their line of work.
“For you, as the mayor to avoid being captured we have got to work according to the book and that everything you do should be legal,” says one Mayor.
“In everything that you do you need money, we are focusing on revenue collection, l was impressed here listening to one municipality, King Cetshwayo, they have 93% revenue collection and they are doing well in serving people so those are the areas we are going to focus on,” another Mayor explains.
The poor-performing Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape was in the spotlight. It’s been receiving negative audit outcomes and at times failing to pay salaries. Its new mayor believes he has a plan to turn the situation around.
“The municipality is a municipality that is riddled by administrative and political instability. There are also issues of corruption or allegations of corruption, l would like to state that corruption is cancer and it diverts already scarce resources from important policy goals,” says Anele Ntsangani: Amathole District Municipality Executive Mayor.
Ramaphosa has called on mayors to use their powers and hold accountable municipal officials that mismanage municipal funds.
VIDEO: SALGA to hold Council of Mayors Conference
